37_Will Wright

The video-game mastermind behind The Sims franchise now aims to bring out the intelligent designer in all of us. Due in late 2006, Will Wright's new game, Spore, lets players design life-forms, from the single-celled to ravenous intergalactic predators, which are then turned loose to evolve as they move through a sci-fi landscape of the gamer's own devising. The program actually autogenerates creatures, landscapes, civilizations, even planets designed by the user, and, as in The Sims, stores them for others to share. "Spore is the highest-profile experiment in gaming right now," says Dave Kosak of Game Spy.com. "Will Wright is essentially changing the way content is made."

Add New Comment

0Comments

Sure, there's plenty to fret about in the coming decade--dwindling natural resources, swelling populations, whipsawing technology, and growing conflict. But are we scared? Hell, no. The possibilities are multiplying, too. We're learning to engineer human organs from our own tissue, generate solar power on a vast scale, build robots to fight our wars--and even make a cubicle we'd actually want to work in. Inside, 50 portraits from the future: people in business, technology, government, the arts, and beyond who are writing the history of the next 10 years. No, they aren't all heroes. Some are simply seizing an opportunity. But they're all smart, and they all tell you a lot about where we're heading.